I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Romney has said that he will eliminate the tax on capital gains.  I wonder how many jobs he'll create when he has been relieved of the "burden" of capital gains taxes.

His donations to charity are almost exclusively to the Mormon Church where one must go before a bishop once a year and confirm that one has tithed at least 10% of one's income to the church.  In order to serve as a bishop, which Romney has done, one must tithe at least 10%. 

Notself ... Tithing to the Mormon church is not a charitable donation.  They have no choice if they don't want to get excommunicated ... so if Romney is saying it's a charitable donation, he's full of horse manure.  I lived in Utah for many years and I'm very familiar with the Mormon church.  For the most part, they're really nice people, but it's a very exclusive club.

hugs,

Bren

What exactly is "investment income"? Does he have other income he doesn't pay taxes on?----------kas2kar
Hi everyone, Im certainly learning alot with you gals, not just what is in fashion or who is dating whom(?).

Kad, "investment income" is what people make from stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other types of investments. There are many types of income from investments and they are taxed differently than income from working a job. Two types of income from investments are capital gains and dividends. Capital gains income is taxed at the lowest tax rate, or 15%. So, if all your income was capital gains, you would pay a 15% tax rate. That is a very simplistic explanation ... Maybe someone who knows a little more can chime in?



I just use TurboTax and do what it tells me ... And then I go through the forms and do them again to check TurboTax because I am compulsive.



L

Going soon to get the Brazillian hair treatment done again as a birthday present for me. It's lasted 6 months - 2 more than they said. Still doesn't really need it, but I want to spoil myself. Still not looking forward to Monday - maybe I'll wake up and realise I'm not really different from the day before, just a year older. I was talking to a guy at work about morning tea for a girl on his team. Her birthday is Tuesday and we are having a joint morning tea. He was quite surprised I was turning 60 and another woman said yesterday she doesn't think I look that age, so I guess it's all in my mind

About capital gains:  Let's say you purchased 5,000 shares in Widget Corp. 10 years ago.  At that time each share was worth $5.  Over time, demand for the company's product (widgets, of course) grew and Widget Corp. shares today are worth $10 each.  You decide to sell your shares, and you make a grand profit of $50,000, less the $25,000 you paid for them.  Your "capital gains" = $25,000, and I believe the income tax rate on capital gains profit in the U.S. is 15%.

I think I read that Romney wants to get rid of the capital gains tax entirely.  This would benefit him enormously as I'm sure he has a very healthy, and active, stock portfolio!  On the other hand, it would definitely not benefit your government's bottom line.....

In my former life as a hospital foundation executive, we lobbied the Canadian government to allow donors to donate stocks and avoid paying any capital gains tax (thereby making it much more desirable for the wealthy to donate their shares to qualified charities).  I don't know if that is also possible in the U.S. 

You know, Mitt just succeeded in capping off a very bad week by making it even worse. The man seems to have a talent for shoving his foot so far up his mouth that it comes out on the other end...

Honestly, right now was not the time to release his tax statements. Maybe he did it because  he misinterpreted people's outrage as a feeling that he is too distant - only a vain man would think that was the main issue. They thought (found out) he was hard. By releasing his tax returns so close to the video Romney reinforces notions that he is out of touch because he has it easy and that he doesn't play by the same rules as everybody else.

What a tin ear the man has.

On top of everything else, Mitt has the worst run campaign I have seen since McCain - and that is saying a lot. He should have at least waited a week - or not been so stubborn and naive and released them sooner.

Boy, lack of empathy really makes a person clueless.

Not to mention that it again brings up the question of what is he hiding in the ones he still won't release.  Mr. Ryan had a bit of a hard day dodging boos at the AARP too.  Watched a video ... he's pretty obvious with his smirky "we don't care what you think" look.  And Mrs. Romney is peeved at her fellow GOPers because they don't realize how 'hard it is' to campaign.  And how lucky they are to have Mitt available to 'run' the country.  Yep ... not lead ... not serve ... run.  Little tin horn dictator mindsets there IMO. 

Update - Romney could not take all of his "charitable" contributions as deductions or he would have paid less than the 13% effective rate he previously claimed he would have paid for 2011.  Ofcourse, that sort of belies his claim that a good business should take all of the deductions they're legally entitled to.

Rumor buzzing around the internet is that the Dems have all of the Romney returns that were given to John McCain.  Might be why Harry Reid said what he said about Romney not paying any tax in some years.   A nice October surprise?

One thing his returns and rate of taxes paid proves beyond a doubt ... the wealthy are doing fine and do.not.need more tax cuts.  They already pay less percentage wise than the middle class. 

At outrageous moments like this (my outrage: I KNOW he doesn't do his fair share - I'm just amazed he thought NOW was the time to say it!!) I like to read comments around the web. Here are the ones from the NYT:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/romney-to-release-2011-tax-returns/#commentsContainer

(scroll down a bit to find the comments)

That reminds of the autumn that there were 4 or 5 snakes hanging from some apple trees in the orchard.  We had never seen that before or since.  Weird.

Thank you, Athena! I heard your roar way out here!

In your purse, E, ready to throw things if they don't give you enough good drugs!



XOXO



L

In your purse Scooto- or whoever you are